Goldsmith | Page 6

passage-money, and having sent his kit on board; of the anonymous
captain sailing away with Oliver's valuable luggage, in a nameless ship,
never to return; if Uncle Contarine and the mother at Ballymahon
believed his stories, they must have been a very simple pair; as it was a

very simple rogue indeed who cheated them." Indeed, if any one is
anxious to fill up this hiatus in Goldsmith's life, the best thing he can do
is to discard Goldsmith's suspicious record of his adventures, and put in
its place the faithful record of the adventures of Mr. Barry Lyndon,
when that modest youth left his mother's house and rode to Dublin,
with a certain number of guineas in his pocket. But whether Uncle
Contarine believed the story or no, he was ready to give the young
gentleman another chance; and this time it was the legal profession that
was chosen. Goldsmith got fifty pounds from his uncle, and reached
Dublin. In a remarkably brief space of time he had gambled away the
fifty pounds, and was on his way back to Ballymahon, where his
mother's reception of him was not very cordial, though his uncle
forgave him, and was once more ready to start him in life. But in what
direction? Teaching, the Church, and the law had lost their attractions
for him. Well, this time it was medicine. In fact, any sort of project was
capable of drawing forth the good old uncle's bounty. The funds were
again forthcoming; Goldsmith started for Edinburgh, and now (1752)
saw Ireland for the last time.
He lived, and he informed his uncle that he studied, in Edinburgh for a
year and a half; at the end of which time it appeared to him that his
knowledge of medicine would be much improved by foreign travel.
There was Albinus, for example, "the great professor of Leyden," as he
wrote to the credulous uncle, from whom he would doubtless learn
much. When, having got another twenty pounds for travelling expenses,
he did reach Leyden (1754), he mentioned Gaubius, the chemical
professor. Gaubius is also a good name. That his intercourse with these
learned persons, and the serious nature of his studies, were not
incompatible with a little light relaxation in the way of gambling is not
impossible. On one occasion, it is said, he was so lucky that he came to
a fellow student with his pockets full of money; and was induced to
resolve never to play again--a resolution broken about as soon as made.
Of course he lost all his winnings, and more; and had to borrow a
trifling sum to get himself out of the place. Then an incident occurs
which is highly characteristic of the better side of Goldsmith's nature.
He had just got this money, and was about to leave Leyden, when, as
Mr. Forster writes, "he passed a florist's garden on his return, and

seeing some rare and high-priced flower, which his uncle Contarine, an
enthusiast in such things, had often spoken and been in search of, he
ran in without other thought than of immediate pleasure to his kindest
friend, bought a parcel of the roots, and sent them off to Ireland." He
had a guinea in his pocket when he started on the grand tour.
Of this notable period in Goldsmith's life (1755-6) very little is known,
though a good deal has been guessed. A minute record of all the
personal adventures that befell the wayfarer as he trudged from country
to country, a diary of the odd humours and fancies that must have
occurred to him in his solitary pilgrimages, would be of quite
inestimable value; but even the letters that Goldsmith wrote home from
time to time are lost; while The Traveller consists chiefly of a series of
philosophical reflections on the government of various states, more
likely to have engaged the attention of a Fleet-Street author, living in
an atmosphere of books, than to have occupied the mind of a tramp
anxious about his supper and his night's lodging. Boswell says he
"disputed" his way through Europe. It is much more probable that he
begged his way through Europe. The romantic version, which has been
made the subject of many a charming picture, is that he was entertained
by the peasantry whom he had delighted with his playing on the flute. It
is quite probable that Goldsmith, whose imagination had been
captivated by the story of how Baron von Holberg had as a young man
really passed through France, Germany, and Holland in this
Orpheus-like manner, may have put a flute in his pocket when he left
Leyden; but it is far from safe to assume, as is generally done, that
Goldsmith was himself the hero of the adventures described in Chapter
XX. of the